


Forest

by franticatlantic



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8501266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franticatlantic/pseuds/franticatlantic
Summary: Tyler is part deer.He doesn't talk much.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for an [anon](http://vintagetyler.tumblr.com/post/152796831653/deer-boy-tyler-not-a-centaur-looks-human) on tumblr who wanted deerboy!tyler.

The markings on Tyler’s forehead are white and they twitch in time with his nose whenever Josh comes near, sniffing curiously. His ears, tipped with black, quiver every time a car goes by outside and Tyler goes very still, making tiny noises that seem to bubble up from his chest.

Josh watches him from the kitchen, phone cradled on his shoulder. “He’s scared shitless, man. Then again, so am I.”

“Sorry, I’m still caught up on the fact that you have a half-deer, half-man in your living room. Just let me come see him, _please?_ ” Michael pleads.

“No. Look, I have to go. He’s getting antsy.”

Tyler has been sitting on Josh’s couch for the past 45 minutes, with his leg (furry and bent just like a deer’s leg) stretched out in front of him. His hoof is resting on the coffee table, an ice pack on his…well, what Josh would assume is his knee. Josh found him like that in the woods, while he was on his nightly jog.

Since then, Josh hasn’t been able to get much more out of Tyler other than his name and the fact that he had fallen.

Now Tyler is leaning forward, prodding at the ice pack. He doesn’t like the coldness of it, Josh can tell, but it’s the only way to make him feel better while Josh figures out who - or what - the hell he is and what to do with him.

Josh hangs up on Michael, grabs the containers he’s taken out of the fridge, and balances them precariously on his way into the living room.

“Hey, bud,” he says gently, sets the containers next to Tyler on the couch and grabs his shaking fingers. “You can’t touch that, okay? It has to stay there for you to get better.”

He doesn’t even know if Tyler understands what he’s saying because it doesn’t seem as if he even hears Josh - as Josh presses Tyler’s hands into his lap Tyler is leaning over and smelling the containers, nose twitching adorably and his ears perking up.

“You want this?” Josh grabs the container on top and opens it - leftover broccoli from a recent trip to Outback. He shows it to Tyler, who leans forward with his eyes closed, still sniffing. He reopens his eyes, wide and brown, in a questioning gaze up at Josh. “You can. Go ahead.”

Tyler takes the container slowly. Josh half expected him to just bury his face in the container and go to town, but he lifts each piece between his fingers and eats almost daintily. Josh is glad he’s eating - he offered him cold pizza when they first got in and Tyler had turned his nose up at it, looking personally affronted.

While Tyler busies himself with the food, Josh inspects his leg. He takes the icepack and lifts the furry appendage by Tyler’s hoof, parts the hair to see the abrasion on the pink skin beneath. A quick pass of his fingers over the spot tells him the swelling has gone down at least.

“I think you’re gonna be okay, buddy,” Josh says, and rubs his fingers through Tyler’s fur unthinkingly.

Tyler is watching him with big eyes, chewing slowly. He makes a quiet chirping noise and smiles at Josh. Josh smiles back, replaces Tyler’s leg gingerly back on the table, and reaches forward.

Frightened, Tyler presses himself back against the couch cushions, sniffing at Josh’s fingers. “It’s okay. It’s me.”

Tyler blows a stream of moist air against Josh’s fingers and then bunts his head up, so that Josh’s hand is on his forehead. Josh slides his fingers into Tyler’s hair, between his small antlers, and Tyler’s ears flatten against his head. His eyes are closed like he’s having the time of his life.

There’s a thumping sound and Josh realizes with a jolt of pure innocence that it’s Tyler’s tail, beating a steady rhythm against the sofa.

“Y’like that?” He mutters, but he doesn’t really have to ask - Tyler is sighing contentedly and urging his head against Josh’s fingers for more.

Then another car passes by and Tyler squeaks, cowers back against the sofa. “Hey, it’s okay.” Josh takes the other carryout containers and passes them back onto the coffee table as he takes their place beside Tyler. He puts an arm around Tyler’s shoulders and pulls him gently against his side. “You must not have spent much time in the city, huh?”

“Forest.” The word is just as soft and high-pitched as the two other words Tyler has said in Josh’s presence since he found him an hour ago.

“You live in the forest?”

Tyler nods, batting his big, round eyes and taking another bite of broccoli.

“Where in the forest?”

But Tyler doesn’t answer that question, leaving Josh to ponder on his own. It can’t have been far from where Josh found him - on a back trail in the nature park where he always jogs.

As Tyler continues to eat, Josh opens the rest of the containers and offers them to Tyler, who sniffs them all and goes back to his broccoli. He probably should have guessed a deer wouldn’t want to eat fish or chicken or even the eggs he had for breakfast this morning.

He piles it all back in the fridge and microwaves a glass of milk instead.

By the time he returns to the couch Tyler has devoured the rest of the broccoli, stalk and all, and is yawning.

“You tired?” Josh sits beside him again.

Tyler nods and sinks against Josh’s side without Josh’s aid. His ears twitch against the underside of Josh’s chin.

“You want some of this before you sleep?” He stops with his hand just under Tyler’s chin and Tyler sniffs once before grabbing the glass violently from Josh’s fingers and nearly upending the thing over his face. “Whoa, whoa, you gotta go slow.”

Some of the milk is dripping down the sides of Tyler’s mouth, over his chin. Josh pulls the glass away and Tyler is making whining noises, reaching out for the glass with his fingers working. Josh wipes the mess from Tyler’s mouth with his fingers and rubs it carelessly into the thigh of his jeans.

Then he presses the lip of the glass to Tyler’s mouth, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Slow. Okay?”

Tyler nods, wide eyes fixed on the glass of milk. He lets Tyler take it and watches as he downs the whole thing in one long, slow gulp. He smacks his lips when he’s finished, tongue darting out to chase any leftovers he may have missed.

“Yummy,” he says, and Josh gives a scratch right between his ears, making them perk up even further.

“I’m glad.”

He’s afraid to leave Tyler alone in the living room, because Tyler might hurt himself or try to leave or even try to make himself another glass of milk and wind up burning himself. So he leads him into the bedroom, Tyler limping on his injured leg, where he takes Tyler’s shirt off.

He could have guessed from Tyler’s hands, but his pair of deer legs ends at an entirely human torso, which leads into an entirely human head. Aside from, y’know, the antlers and ears.

“This is too weird,” Josh mutters, and Tyler looks sad, ears dipping as he tilts his head. “Sorry. You’re cute, you know that? But also weird.”

Tyler huffs and looks away and the skin around his white markings turns pink, almost like he’s blushing.

Josh doesn’t know if that’s exactly what it is, but he grabs Tyler by the hand anyway and leads him to the bed. “Is this how you normally sleep?”

Tyler strokes the sheets with the tips of his fingers and shakes his head.

“Would you…prefer the floor?” The thought makes Josh cringe.

Tyler shakes his head again, pokes a finger into Josh’s chest. “You.”

“I sleep here.” Josh gestures to the bed.

“Here,” Tyler says, and hops on top of it.

He tumbles a little as Josh pulls the covers down, looking completely bewildered. Josh strips his shirt off and climbs in, laid on his back, but tilting his head to look at Tyler, who is balanced precariously on his butt with his hands holding him up. He doesn’t look like he likes the position very much. “You can lay down.”

With a nod and a spasm of his ears, Tyler sinks down beside Josh under the sheets, curled up on his side.

Josh turns the bedside lamp off and hears Tyler sigh - this must be how he’s used to sleeping. In complete darkness with no light but that of the moon.

Josh falls asleep to the sounds of air whistling in and out of Tyler’s moist nose. But he’s awoken in the middle of the night to something tickling his cheek.

He grunts and blinks heavy eyes open to see that Tyler has curled up beside him. It’s his ears that are brushing Josh’s face. Josh passes his hands over them, flattening them down as tenderly as he can, and in the darkness Tyler sighs and whispers something.

“Forest.”

**Author's Note:**

> always taking requests at my [tumblr](http://vintagetyler.tumblr.com/).


End file.
